When I Roll, I Roll Deep, Oil on linen, 2011
Currently on view at Peres Projects, Kreuzberg, Berlin is When I Roll, I Roll Deep by artist Pete WHEELER. This is the first exhibit I’m writing about based on images/information compiled online. I’m planning to return to Berlin soon, and recently started checking in on galleries that I plan to visit. Peres Projects has been a personal favorite for a while and discovering Pete’s paintings just sent an eerie chill down my spine. The paintings are dark, dismal, and yet in all of this internal fury now contained within the confines and perimeter of a canvas, feel like a hopeful reminder of thewryly inspired interpretation of historical occurrences through contemporary eyes and hands.
Gallery Installation View
Pete WHEELER is based in Berlin. He is originally from New Zealand and this is his first exhibition at Peres Projects. On-view is a new body of work composed of large-scale oil paintings focusing on the male gender and the archetype of virile mythology. His subjects are rockers, bikers, loners, lovers, heart breakers and those with broken hearts. They walk on the edge of a line that surrounds the societal norm in the realm of fantasy and reality.
Nothing But the Thought of You, Oil on linen, 2011
WHEELER has exhibited internationally including in Chelsea a few years back at the now defunct Buia Gallery where there is a good chance, I’ve seen his work before. The new paintings and what I’ve discovered on his website carry a genuineness and approaches what may be the dichotomy of his own insecurities and self-assuredness as channeled through these fictional characters who eagerly carry the stereotypical weight of masculinity.
Marking the Art World with (assumed) Harley Davidson boot prints along with contemporary peers, New York based installation artist Banks Violette and Adam Helms (who I’ve written about previously here) Pete WHEELER paints what he knows, what he sees and probably what he dreams about. An undercurrent of war lingers as cobwebs in the corner of an dimly lit room and an imagined soundtrack of Black Metal filters through the now dried paint on the surface of the canvas.
When I Roll, I Roll Deep is on view at Peres Projects until June 25th, 2011. If I don’t make it to Berlin before then, go for me and for the devil on your shoulder, who I promise is just along for the ride.
All photos courtesy of Peres Projects website.
More soon!
xo